Zone will give NBA big boost
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Sports Columnist
For nearly a half century now, there have been few rules closer to the NBA's heart or more carved in stone than the prohibition against the zone defense.
Through George Mikan, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O'Neal, it has been one of the time-honored constants, a tie that bound generations, eras and a philosophy.
Which is why you have to hand it to the NBA for daring to pull the plug on it this week. The NBA hasn't been afraid to take a long look at its product and make a major change. And, how often can you say that about any of the pro sports leagues these days?
Perhaps not since the advent of the shot clock in 1954 has the NBA undertaken a more potentially significant change. Or, a more controversial one.
In trying to invigorate a game that has too often become plodding, the NBA's Board of Governors announced that, beginning with summer leagues and exhibitions and carrying into next season, the league will legalize the once forbidden zone, with some restrictions.
The biggest one being that a defensive player can't stay in the lane beyond three seconds if he strays more than an arm's length away from an offensive player.
The argument could be made that it is desperation, born of falling television numbers and declining crowds, which emboldens the NBA's decision makers. And the owners admit their concern at the trend the numbers reflect.
But anybody who has followed the NBA before the 1990s also knows the game has degenerated to the point where at least attempting a major change is necessary.
It has long been evident that the league is shot-challenged and ponderously predictable. That the emphasis on the isolation play, in which several players stand by on one side, luring defenders away from the ball on the other, has contributed to the slide in scoring and interest. That big men methodically dribbling and backing toward the basket with all the flair of a delivery van, minus the warning beep, have produced yawns. Teamwork and precision, choreographed offenses have declined. What's more, setting screens and moving without the ball have become vanishing arts.
Which is where the coming of the zone should help. It should foster more movement and offensive flow, rewarding good passing and strategy.
The great fear is that the zone will take away from the game's stars. That opponents will pack the inside on O'Neal and deny some of the penetration of Allen Iverson. This, though, is giving too little credit to the great players who somehow always find a way to adapt and shine.
As Jerry Colangelo, president of the Phoenix Suns and head of the committee that introduced the zone, correctly puts it, "Great players will still be great."
What the NBA has done through its adoption of the zone is give the game a chance to recapture some of its greatness, too.
Ferd Lewis can be reached at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com.
